If all it takes to have a healthy self-image is natural physical beauty, there would be no anorexic supermodels.

Celebrities like Christina Aguilera and Carmen Electra needn't have had breast enlargement surgeries, actresses such as Brooke Shields and Uma Thurman needn't have had costly cellulite treatments, and famous moms like Dayna Devon and Patricia Heaton needn't have had tummy tucks.

I'll be the first to admit that if there were papparatziis following me everywhere I went, I'd be a lot more concerned about cellulite. Who wants to find an unflattering photo of themself on the front page of a tabloid under the heading, "Worst Celebrity Beach Bodies"? If you could easily afford cellulite laser treatment, why not have it done? And to be fair, Patricia Heaton had four ceasarean sections before opting for a tummy tuck.

I've borne two children in a three-year time period and my second child was 10 lbs! He was also nine days overdue. So, we're talking a huge ponch here. He's a year old now and I still have a roll on my belly. I can usually hide it by sucking in, but I'll be honest and admit that I'm self-conscious about it and would rather it not be there. A tummy tuck seems like such a quick fix, especially considering a post-partum tummy can't always be flattened by mere stomach crunches. And anyone who's had a ceasarean section knows that such scars can't be dieted away. But because surgery is both extreme and expensive (not to mention dangerous), most women have to resign themselves to living with the permanent "battle scars" of pregnancy, such a saggier boobs, looser tummies and stretch marks. Nevertheless, we still compare our post-partum figures to those of celebrity moms who have personal trainers, one-on-one dieting coaches and if all else fails, cash for surgery. We even compare our post-partum figures to women who have never been pregnant.

I'm sure at one time or another, many of you have come across photos of celebrites caught without makeup. It's always a shocking sight! We're now living in the age of Photoshop beauty and anything that falls below that standard of perfection is considered unattractive, plain and even ugly. Natural beauty is no longer enough. Even the most beautiful women (by society's standards) still have to be swathered in makeup and air-brushed before they can appear on the cover of a magazine. Remove a wrinkle here, dab out the character lines beneath the eyes there, fill out the chest and lips a bit here, and smooth out the hips ever-so-slighty there. The images we see plastered thoughout magazines, billboards on the highways, posters in the shopping malls, music videos, and TV commericials, are not real women at all; they are glorified caricatures. Even mannequins have disproportioned Barbie doll figures. And yet I will admit that one look at a magazine cover can make me feel bad about myself.